Verified — real FDD extraction
Not found in the SBA Franchise Directory under this name — though SBA loans to its franchisees exist; verify eligibility with your lender
JERSEY MIKE'S
Other · independent · est. —
Jersey Mike's is a fast-casual sub sandwich chain known for fresh-sliced cold subs and grilled hot subs made to order. A franchisee operates a sandwich shop, managing food prep, staff, and counter/takeout service.
JERSEY MIKE'S net unit count grew +54.3% from 2021–2025 per its FDD Item 20.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Proven & strong
Distress
Enough units and history to judge, and the record is good: growing or stable units with clean exits by the standards of its disclosed record. The standout in the record: owners who leave mostly sell rather than fail.
Exit rate · latest year
0.4%
fiscal 2025, per Item 20
Cost to open
$436K–$1.2M
Item 7 total investment range
SBA loan defaults
7.4%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
3-yr trend · Item 20 Table 1
terminations + ceased-ops vs. all exits · Table 3
transfers vs. base · Table 3
actual vs. projected openings · Table 5
Item 19 disclosure + completeness
Systemwide units
2021–2025
Survival record
FDD Item 20 · outlet status by year
In fiscal 2025, 13 of 2,955 franchised outlets left the system — a 0.4% annualized exit rate. Not every exit is a failure — but this is the measurable floor.
Show the outlet tables ↓Hide the evidence ↑
| Status (FTC) | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outlets at start | 1,847 | 2,091 | 2,387 | 2,675 | 2,989 |
| Opened | 283 | 301 | 296 | 319 | 259 |
| Transfers | 60 | 105 | 96 | 77 | 218 |
| Terminations | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-renewals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reacquired by franchisor | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Ceased — other reasons | 8 | 9 | 10 | 5 | 13 |
| Outlets at end | 2,091 | 2,387 | 2,675 | 2,989 | 3,227 |
| Net change | +244 | +296 | +288 | +314 | +238 |
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 202 SBA-backed loans to JERSEY MIKE'S franchisees since 1992. Of the 175 that have resolved, 7.4% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 576 rated brands.
7.4%
13 of 175 resolved defaulted
53.5%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
4.0%
default rate × loss severity
$180,630
what recent franchisees borrowed
90 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
—
distinct banks lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO JERSEY MIKE'S BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Pnc Bank, National Association
11.5% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 15.4% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
42.5%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
−2.0pp
multi-unit vs single-unit owners
Owners of multiple units default at 6.3%; single-unit owners at 8.3%.
Computed from 202 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to JERSEY MIKE'S franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
What it costs — and what it drags
FDD Items 5–7 · fees, investment, royalty
Buying in means a $20K franchise fee (Item 5) and a total investment of $436K–$1.2M (Item 7). The franchisor publishes an earnings claim (Item 19) — read its methodology closely.
To open (Item 7)
$436K–$1.2M
all-in investment range
Franchise fee (Item 5)
$20K
upfront, one-time
Royalty (Item 6)
6.5%
of sales, ongoing
Your figure — cross-check against this brand's Item 19 and current-owner validation.
Royalty you'd pay / yr
$65K
6.5% of sales, before profit
Over a 10-yr term
$650K
royalties alone, excl. ad fund
This is not profit. It's the only money the FDD actually pins down — what you put in, and the royalty you owe on every dollar of sales. Your real take-home depends on labor, rent, food cost, and ramp-to-breakeven, none of which any FDD discloses.
Build a real pro-forma for JERSEY MIKE'S with an independent CPALabor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 51 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $56K in back wages for 156 workers, including 32 child-labor cases. Some of these cases are recent, not ancient history. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
51
Back wages owed
$56K
Employees affected
156
Since 2020
24
32 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 162 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual JERSEY MIKE'S franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not JERSEY MIKE'S itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2026.
Modeled risk
FDD Risk Score · modeled from the public record
Modeled from the public record, this brand looks safer than 90% of systems we score.
Risk percentile
10 / 100
Measured
Modeled SBA charge-off
7.4%
Observed SBA charge-off
7.4%
Top drivers: System size (log units) (lowers) · Single-lender dependence (raises) · Investment ceiling (log) (lowers) · Item 20 exit rate (lowers). 50+ resolved loans and complete disclosure data — the score is checkable against the brand's observed rate. A linear scorecard built from this brand's own disclosure figures plus the federal loan record behind its franchisees; full spec and cross-validated accuracy on the methodology page. A score is context, not a verdict.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
No recent closures, bankruptcies, or major lawsuits found in the news for JERSEY MIKE'S. That's a good sign — but it reflects news coverage, not a guarantee.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. An independent CPA is paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing JERSEY MIKE'S's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
Talk to an independent CPA before you buy →JERSEY MIKE'S franchise questions, answered from the filings
What percentage of JERSEY MIKE'S franchises closed last year?
In JERSEY MIKE'S's latest FDD Item 20 (fiscal 2025), 13 of 2,955 franchised outlets left the system — an annualized exit rate of 0.4%. That counts terminations, non-renewals, and "ceased operations — other reasons." There is no official failure rate, and not every exit is a failure, but this is the measurable floor.
How much does a JERSEY MIKE'S franchise cost?
Per JERSEY MIKE'S's 2026 FDD, buying in requires an initial franchise fee of $20K (Item 5) and a total initial investment of $436K–$1.2M (Item 7).
What royalty does JERSEY MIKE'S charge?
JERSEY MIKE'S charges an ongoing royalty of 6.5% of gross sales, per Item 6 of its 2026 FDD.
Does JERSEY MIKE'S disclose earnings (Item 19)?
Yes — JERSEY MIKE'S makes a financial performance representation in Item 19 of its 2026 FDD, reporting a median unit volume of $1.3M. Read it closely: franchisors choose which units and which metrics to include.
How often do SBA loans for JERSEY MIKE'S franchises default?
Across 202 SBA-backed loans to JERSEY MIKE'S franchisees since 1992, 13 of the 175 that have resolved were charged off — a 7.4% default rate, versus about 14.8% across all rated franchise brands. This is the lender's-eye view of franchisee failure, drawn from public SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA data and independent of the franchisor's own disclosures.